President Donald Trump’s latest gaffe Wednesday in which he said he loves inflation is more than an act of political self-harm. It’s the kind of error that should once again raise questions about his soundness of mind.
A reporter at the White House asked Trump whether he was concerned about Wednesday morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report that inflation hit 4.2% in May, a three-year high.
Trump replied:
No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now, something you didn’t know, do you know, we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it, you know. Who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don’t have any radar, because we blasted the crap out of it.
It was a jaw-dropping response.
It’s beyond baffling that Trump would announce that he’s fond of an economic phenomenon that hurts working people and has been leading to losses for incumbent parties across the democratized world. People struggling to put food on the table and make rent are suffering in a tangible way from skyrocketing energy costs, and their corrupt billionaire president is cavalierly describing inflation as a positive. Trump is once again writing Democrats’ midterm attack ads for them.
When Trump gets midway through the comment, one might wonder if he’s speaking in an ironic tone and winding up to offer a counterintuitive explanation for why Americans should see inflation as tolerable. But instead, he pivots to a non sequitur about the U.S. allegedly secretly smuggling barrels of oil from somewhere unspecified — Iran? The Strait of Hormuz?
Other officials in his government appear to have no clue what he meant. As MS NOW reported, “Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was simultaneously testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, told lawmakers that he did not know of any such operation.”
A White House official tried to clean up Trump’s confusing claim by telling The New York Times that Trump was referring to the U.S.’ efforts to escort commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz. But not only was that operation entirely public, it also failed miserably. Unless more evidence emerges that says otherwise, it appears Trump was making something up or doesn’t understand how his own Iran policy works.
But crucially, nothing he said explains why he said, “I love the inflation.” Even if there has been some secret oil-removal mission in Iran, it doesn’t make inflation good, or tolerable (or more likely to recede). Instead it seems Trump failed to retain focus on the topic at hand, and then blurted out something he meant to sound like an advertisement for American power.
Wednesday’s gaffe is distinct from Trump’s comment last month that “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” as he confronts Iran. That professed indifference amounted to Trump accidentally revealing his true feelings.
“I love the inflation” is closer to President Joe Biden saying “we finally beat Medicare” at the end of an unintelligible ramble during his 2024 debate with Trump. Biden’s answer amplified doubts among Democrats over whether he was capable of completing a second term, and it eventually led to him dropping his candidacy for re-election.
By contrast, Trump’s incoherent account of inflation and tall tales about his foolish war are yawned at by Republicans. A functioning party would do everything it could to buck a party leader who is a walking, talking liability and appears to have declining reasoning skills. But if those Republicans running in midterm elections don’t strongly condemn Trump’s claim to love inflation, we’ll have reason to question their reasoning skills, too.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.